Department of Health and Social Care

Mental Health Services: Young People

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of existing (a) service provision and (b) capacity to meet the mental health needs of young people.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Care Quality Commission makes an annual assessment of health and care services in England and publishes its findings through the State of Care report. The most recent ‘The state of health care and adult social care in England 2019/20’ finds that 71% of National Health Services (NHS) mental health core services were rated as good and 11% as outstanding. The report does not provide a breakdown for services for children and young people, or young people specifically.On capacity, the NHS Digital publishes quarterly data through the NHS Mental Health Dashboard. It includes the proportion of children and young people who have had at least two contacts with NHS-funded community mental health services, based on estimated prevalence available in 2016, namely the Office for National Statistics report Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain, 2004. In 2019/20, 36.9% of children and young people with a diagnoseable mental health condition had at least two contacts with such services. This exceeds the aims of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health to increase access for children and young people from 25% to at least 35% of expected prevalence by 2020/21.We know that the pandemic has had an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of many children and young people. This is why we are investing an additional £500 million in 2021/22 to address waiting times for mental health services, give more people the mental health support they need, and invest in the NHS workforce. As part of this investment, we have committed to accelerate key commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan. We continue to work with Public Health England, NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health, including commissioning regular surveys via NHS Digital to monitor this over the course of the pandemic.

Surgical Mesh Implants

Aaron Bell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has plans to investigate a potential link between the properties of polypropylene mesh and foreign body reaction, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders.

Ms Nadine Dorries: There are no plans to investigate the link between the properties of polypropylene mesh and foreign body reaction, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders.The Department has commissioned NHS Digital to undertake a retrospective audit of complications from pelvic mesh from a defined cohort of women. This was announced in the Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Review.Planning is at an early stage and the requirements for this audit are currently being gathered from a range of stakeholders and patient representatives.

Bunzl Healthcare: Protective Clothing

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the £22.6 million contract awarded to Bunzl Healthcare on 3 April 2020 for personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak was approved through the eight stage process to assess and approve offers of support to supply personal protection equipment.

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2021 to Question 25834 on Coronavirus: Protective Clothing, how many contracts for the supply of personal protective equipment pre-dated the formalised eight stage assurance process; and what was the total cost of those contracts to the public purse.

Jo Churchill: The National Audit Office (NAO) published a report on Government procurement activity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in November last year. The report is available at the following link:https://www.nao.org.uk/report/government-procurement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/The report noted (Paragraph 3.19) that by 28 April 2020, personal protective equipment contracts had been awarded to 71 suppliers, with a total value of £1.5 billion, i.e. before offers were being processed through what the NAO have described as the eight stage process. Bunzl Healthcare were one of these suppliers.The ‘eight stage process’ is a term to describe at a point in time a structured process of checks and due diligence on suppliers which evolved in March and April 2020. It includes the introduction of a central clearance board at the beginning of May 2020 to perform checks previously performed by the Department’s Accounting Officer to add an extra level of assurance that the deal met the Department’s requirements. However, from the start all suppliers were evaluated by officials on financial standing, technical compliance and ability to perform the contract.